Drive with the Arms

I have Runnervals “Cheetah Fast” DVD.  It’s a killer treadmill workout for sure!   I have never actually made it through the whole thing without jumping off the belt for an unplanned rest.    One of the things Coach Troy shouts out during that workout is “drive with the arms“.  I never really thought much about that.  Until today.

I always carry a palm holder water bottle when I run.  No matter how short the run is, I need to have water to sip.  I carry it during races, too.   I prefer to sip water continuosly, rather than gulp down cupfuls at the aid stations.

Today I ran 12.5 miles on the American Tobacco Trail in Southern Wake County.   I planned the run as 1 hour out, and 1 hour back.   I wasn’t sure if there were any water fountains along the trail, so I carried my 20 ounce palm holder bottle as I normally do, in my right hand. Plus – a 10 ounce disposable bottle in my left hand.

Whenever I run – always – I am concentrating on my form.   I was thinking fast feet, good posture, yoga breathing, short stride, butt running, stuff like that.      At one point, I was chanting “fast feet” in my head.   Then I asked myself, “How can I make my feet go faster?”.  Then I remembered Coach Troy’s “drive with the arms“…by that he means to swing your arms at a faster rate, and your feet will naturally follow with a higher turnover.

BUT – holding two heavy bottles of water in my hands made it really hard to swing my arms faster.   It almost felt like I was doing a strength training workout, swinging my arms with handweights!   I never noticed this before when just holding the Palm Holder bottle in one hand.   It became glaringly obvious today with two bottles!!

Now I am wondering if I have been  limiting my run cadence by carrying water this way on every single run.    Or am  I just grasping at straws in my quest to run faster?  Icould switch back over to my fuel belt, which I don’t really like because it’s just too many bottles to mess with. Or maybe buy a camel back? Or, I’ve seen folks running with this sort of hydration belt.   Anyone have one of these???

Workout notes:

2h 00m 21s 12.42 Mi 09m 41s/Mi Avg HR: 145 Max HR: 161
2 hours on the ATT trail. Actually went beyond the trailhead to get to the 1hour mark, then turned around. Really faded the last couple miles. Wish my pace was closer to 9 m/m since this was all flat. My excuse is that I started out with trashed legs from yesterday!

Next week, I will start at the Olive New Hill end, and run north. That way, I won’t run out of trail.

Legs felt trashed the whole time. Mentally hard to keep focus on fast feet and good posture and butt running and all that crap. Ate boost + banana before workout, and 3 Gu’s during. Next week, I’m going to try Gu Roctane. Used that at Rev3 and I think it helped. Damn expensive tho.